Dec 13, 2007

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT): Issues for Congress

One of the key challenges to managing the use of open source is the absence of widely accepted measurements or metrics. Intelligence Community managers seek quantifable measures for day-to-day administration. Counts are made of the occasions in which open source analyses have been included in the President’s Daily Brief, one of the Intelligence Community’s most important products. Other products are published by the Open Source Center based solely on open source information and disseminated to intelligence analysts and outside experts. Use of the website opensource.gov is also monitored.

Inasmuch as open source information is used by all-source analysts in connection with information from classified sources, it is difficult to measure how much open source information contributes to a specific intelligence product. It is anticipated that open source information will increasingly be relied upon given its greater availability, the nature of issues that today’s analysts must cover, and the heavier emphasis placed on it by senior intelligence leaders. The ultimate metric for the Intelligence Community is, however, the quality of analysis. Today’s analysts work with the awareness that products reflecting ignorance of information contained in open sources will discredit the entire intelligence effort. This will be especially the case when intelligence products are made public and are scrutinized by knowledgeable outside experts.

4 comments:

OSINT is good -very good in fact when you consider that most area and scientific knowledge is there - but it needs to be complimented by long-term investments in clandestinity to have sources in place 5, 10, 20 years down the road for tomorrow's hotspots.

I'm not one to usually whore my own posts but in this instance, I'll make an exception.

Charles Cameron of Hipbone Games left a great comment on cognition at the Intel Ark/Exaflood post at my blog that I'd like you to take a look at, when you have the time. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hmmm, While I don't openly discount the value of OSINT, without a 'boots on the ground' spin for the analyst to grasp, what will he/she conclude from an office window along the beltway ? I've watched too many time how open source is used and abused.

Jeez, I hope somebody is clearing this stuff before it becomes 'intel' (wry grin).

"We are not quite sure what to think of the rather interesting but not entirely worksafe blog.

On the one hand, we find some of the pieces quite excellent but we dislike attempts to play insider baseball with Beltway politics (especially writ large.) We find such discussions border too often on conspiracy theory.

But when they focus on information operations and military matters, they prove worth reading. (We also rather like the manner in which they characterized our link - "Kent's Something of Import".... clearly an artifact of translation software, but it carries with it a flavour of the Victorian...)"-Kent's Something of Import

"Bizarre site, no? I don't know who he/she is, but I'm afraid to link to him/her for risk of being dragged in by the lewd patrol."-Armchair Generalist

"Swedish Meatballs Confidential focuses on unwrapping programs of propaganda, PSYOPS and "perception management" from across the spectrum of media outlets. It's saucy, too. This group knows what the fuck is going on. Read it, and you will too."-Anything They Say

The struggle to disbelieve is eternal. We struggle to disbelieve that which contradicts our predisposition.-Book Of Meatballs 27:33

EXCHANGE

M1:

If we are to take the idea and actions of the Long War seriously then we must immediately come to terms with the full spectrum of consequences of our nation engaged in COIN everywhere and always.

For this, only IO against self can provide us the slightest of chances for persevering without being sundered from within by the trauma of old school losses coming back to gnaw at a Will reared on the decisive and temporally compartmentalized wins of the history books that have reared us.

Otherwise we would do best in working for outlooks and solutions beyond the framework of the Long War. However, such choices are perhaps best left for consideration by more driven and invested minds.

So what do you say, Bernays - any hidden costs? Is this where democracy ends or perhaps where democracy only truly can begin?"

In part, Smith-Mundt is a response to Bernays' activities thirty-five years earlier.

During the massive restructuring of the United States to counter the emerging ideological threat coming from all angles (remember the National Security Act of 1947 was passed during the two years of debate on Smith-Mundt), Smith-Mundt was to protect democracy, not from itself but from the outside.

Protection inside was mainly for the broadcasters, which Benton vigorously and successfully courted the broadcasters and continued to do so afterward its passage in a period of increasingly rapid (relatively) news cycles and accessibility.

The Swede [HaHa!] is right, something significant needs to be done with Smith-Mundt, but attempts at an outright dismissal will be met by a swift and emotional counter-reaction. What is necessary is a conversation on the topic to understand its purpose and intent.

A few days ago, I discussed H-Diplo (a Listserv) as weaker platform than a blog, despite the past richness as a community of interest ( some folks feel the time of H-Net is long over).

Today, I featured an H-Diplo roundtable that could only be most easily put together by a high-powered community of vertical-thinking experts. That is a listserv operating at it's best, showcasing an exchange of real scholarly depth and nuance.

Nevertheless, the exchange that just occurred between SMC and Matt would never have happened on a moderated forum like H-Diplo.

Casus Belli

A must-read blog for IO practitioners or scholars of intelligence and communications interested in the subterranean media ecosystem of disinformation,black propaganda, white noise and strategic messages coming in all shades of gray.- Mark Safranski aka Zen Pundit

Where meatballs are concerned, results are more important than authenticity.-Book of Meatballs 81:99

I found this at a website that has alot of interesting posts about the “war of ideas” with Jihadis and psychological and information warfare.

Each post at this site is illustrated with an “art porn” image, and some of images seem to be deliberately provacative to muslims with pictures of naked women in hijab or vaginas that have been sown closed.

So if you’re offended or easily “incited to evil thoughts” or whatever, maybe you should stay away.ProgressiveIslam.Org